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The village of Yangkeng is in Quzhou City in southern Zhejiang Province. It is special not because the village has many ethnic She residents but because the village boasts a local tradition called “tea lantern show”. Another special feature of the village is that quite a few villagers share the surname Zhu. Their genealogy records that their common ancestor is Zhu Xi， a great scholar of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). It is said that the descendents of Zhu Xi brought the show to the village.

It is easy to understand why the tradition is still alive in the village. Tea is the village’s cash crop and major economic pillar. The village is surrounded by 20 hectares of tea bushes spreading on neighboring ridges and hills. The local tea enjoys a market reputation.

The tea lantern show is something in between a musical and an opera. The historical record traces the tradition to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) when the tradition took initial shape and then fully developed. In every January， a team of 12 teenage girls would present a dance show， each holding a flower basket， which had a lantern in it and covered with gauze. The dance was more than a show of singing and dancing about tea. It had associations with shows of lanterns and flower drums.

The tradition has been in the village since the reign (1644-1661) of Emperor Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). In the early years of the New China， the village show was very alive. It even enjoyed a big reputation in neighboring counties. Villagers brought the show to counties as far as Longyou， Jiangshan and Shuichang. The village tradition was denounced during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). It was not until in 1984 that it came back， but the renaissance lasted only a short time before it dropped into anonymity again.

A few years ago， the local government decided to revive the show. After a series of government rescue measures， a village show troupe is now highly active and many of the scripts have been rescued. Nowadays the troupe not only has a repertoire of 12 traditional shows but also has created four new shows. Last year， several hundreds of tea lantern shows were held in neighboring regions.

The tea lantern show has some very special features. A show does not need big stage properties or a big stage or a big background. Its actors are all teenage boys and girls even though stories are all about adults. A play usually needs one boy and one or two girls to tell a very simple story. In some cases， several up to a dozen dancers will be present. All the youngsters are dressed in garish colors. The young hero usually uses a short ruler which acts symbolically as a shoulder pole， a hoe or a boat pole while girls use bamboo baskets， umbrellas， tea cups or paper lanterns. The repertoire of the tea lantern show contains no tragedies. Most plays are about happiness and romance. Actors sing regular tunes， which display elements borrowed from other performing arts. In contrast to the teen actors， musicians are all adults. They use percussion instruments， flute， huqin， and suona.

Experts comment that some plays of the tea lantern show are the living fossils of the tea tradition of the Song Dynasty.□